Former Prime Minister of Norway Honored by USF

USF RECOGNIZED THE LIFE'S WORK of Kjell Magne Bondevik, twice the prime minister of Norway and the founding president of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, by awarding him an honorary degree Sept. 30.

Bondevik, a Lutheran minister who was prime minister from 1997-2006, is known for increasing programs in health care and education, appointing a large number of women to cabinet posts, protecting the environment, and pledging humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Iraq.

In 2006, he founded the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights to promote international human rights activities, world peace, religious tolerance, and democracy. He has spoken forcefully about human rights violations in Burma, traveled to China to encourage govern-ment officials there to make strides in influencing the Burmese junta, and discussed drawing Iran out of isolation by engaging its leaders in dialogue.